AI As A State Of Mind

Artificial Intelligence in 2019 is not something unknown straight out of a science fiction or a dystopian novel – it is in your pocket, on your desktop, in your home and your workplace. It is not something to be feared or admired from a great distance like our ancestors used to do when seeing fire for the first time – but to be tamed, learned and utilized both on a personal and professional level.

As individuals, AI helps us in our everyday tasks and decisions, making life more seamless. Thanks to machine learning, artificial intelligence now is capable of acting as your extended self. It knows what you wish to watch, listen to, eat, or travel to, leaving you feel like AI knows you better than yourself – or at least that it is always one step ahead of you.

And sure, sometimes it can cause frustration, can be perceived as an invasion of privacy, or even a limitation of one’s own free will (hello, have you seen Netflix’s Bandersnatch?). But in reality, not having to spend time on such benign things is actually more liberating than restraining – or is it?

As for companies, simply the fact of utilizing AI somewhere along the road in their products or services is becoming a bare minimum rather than a competitive edge.  Everybody is doing (or at least should be doing) it. Accenture’s Technology Vision for 2019 identifies AI as one of the key trends companies need to focus on in order to stay in the game – otherwise they will become obsolete.

With the accessibility of more data than ever combined with the help of machine learning, systems can be tasked with more complex jobs on their own. This conveniently leaves humans to do the brainwork instead of filling out excel sheets all day long. Some fear the change, envisioning losing their jobs to robots (a real threat nonetheless), but it rather gives people and companies a chance to reimagine work and human capital as we know it.

Together with our partners at Accenture, we welcome you to Arctic15’s AI&Data track on 5-6 June in Helsinki. Here you’ll get to know about the evolution of conversational AI, gain further insights on the future of AI and meet founders and investors.

Speakers include Ekaterina Almasque, Venture Partner at Open Ocean Capital, Harri Valpola,  CEO and founder, Curious.AI, Jeff Pulver, Executive Vice Chairman, Skrumble, Kia Tahvanainen, Head of AI, Telia, Noora Vesterinen, Product Owner of Nova, Nordea’s customer-facing chatbot, Pia Erkinheimo, Co-founder, iloom.io,Lars Selsås, Founder&CEO, Boost.ai, Konsta Saarela, Director of Accenture Liquid Studios, Accenture and Anna Puustell, Innovation Lead, Senior Manager, Accenture.  

Buy your tickets for the Arctic15 here.